Hey guys, long time lurker of the 80 forum here and have picked up quite a bit of valuable knowledge. I have to call on your guys' expertise here as I chase down some excessive oil consumption. Over the next 7 weeks I will be studying for a FINRA exam at work and won't have the time necessary to do the hours of research that I normally would perform... any help would be appreciated.
So to give a background on the vehicle, it's a 1997 Pink Panty LX450 with 151,XXX miles that I purchased with 143,XXX miles just over a year ago. Since I've had it, I've done the oil changes, I rebuilt the front end and put on 33" KM2s, OME 850/860, ARB Winch bar, and Metaltech sliders.
I've always kept a watchful eye on the oil but the consumption is quite a bit excessive. The block is pretty much coated with oil from the top down, front to back. The valve cover may not even be there any more for all I know, so I went to the local NTB to get a quote (remember my lack of time??). I talked with them for nearly 30 minutes on the vehicle and got a quote of 2 hours at $97 per hour... but if I bring OEM parts, they'll tack on an extra half hour labor. This seems "fair" since I don't really have the time to mess with it, even if it is two hours (girlfriend likes her time too).
In our discussion, we started talking about head gaskets on the vehicle. The mechanic was there and he said he's worked on these vehicles before, so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. When we got into the discussion of HOW much oil the thing consumes, the mechanic said it was leaning toward a head gasket failure.
Now to preface this, and before I go any further, I'll talk about the oil consumption. I check the dip stick every time I fill up and I think I put in right around a quart the last time I filled up. This was 170 miles ago (still getting 11.67 mpg all city). I checked the dip stick tonight and there was about a 1/4 of a quart showing on the dip stick. This raised my eyebrows after a nice meal of Hardee's (had I known the news of NTB, I would have eaten Ramen Noodles).
Back to the mechanic. He said that excessive oil consumption can point to head gasket. All I've read about concerning HG failure was because of poor cooling in the motor - overheating, etc. He seemed to concur and unfortunately, I can't recall what his rational was. He said they don't like Bars stop leak, and prefer Blue Devil. He also said that a puff of blue smoke was HG and not just "blow by." I always though white was more a sign of coolant/HG...
In the last year I've owned it, the truck has never been excessively slow, I've only seen two puffs of smoke early on after it sat running for approximately 5 minutes before I put it in drive, and I don't show any signs of coolant leaks. The overflow tank hasn't budged since I've owned it.
So to turn to mud, what do you guys think? Is this plausible? What should I do from here? I'm going to call the dealerships here in town... if I'm paying someone $97 for labor, I'll gladly pay $105 at a dealership to get all their wonderful perks.
Oh and if all that news isn't bad enough, the hood latch cable is stretched out and is giving me fits... I guess I'll be researching that one next...
Thanks guys... Here's a pic because we all know threads are worthless without them.
So to give a background on the vehicle, it's a 1997 Pink Panty LX450 with 151,XXX miles that I purchased with 143,XXX miles just over a year ago. Since I've had it, I've done the oil changes, I rebuilt the front end and put on 33" KM2s, OME 850/860, ARB Winch bar, and Metaltech sliders.
I've always kept a watchful eye on the oil but the consumption is quite a bit excessive. The block is pretty much coated with oil from the top down, front to back. The valve cover may not even be there any more for all I know, so I went to the local NTB to get a quote (remember my lack of time??). I talked with them for nearly 30 minutes on the vehicle and got a quote of 2 hours at $97 per hour... but if I bring OEM parts, they'll tack on an extra half hour labor. This seems "fair" since I don't really have the time to mess with it, even if it is two hours (girlfriend likes her time too).
In our discussion, we started talking about head gaskets on the vehicle. The mechanic was there and he said he's worked on these vehicles before, so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. When we got into the discussion of HOW much oil the thing consumes, the mechanic said it was leaning toward a head gasket failure.
Now to preface this, and before I go any further, I'll talk about the oil consumption. I check the dip stick every time I fill up and I think I put in right around a quart the last time I filled up. This was 170 miles ago (still getting 11.67 mpg all city). I checked the dip stick tonight and there was about a 1/4 of a quart showing on the dip stick. This raised my eyebrows after a nice meal of Hardee's (had I known the news of NTB, I would have eaten Ramen Noodles).
Back to the mechanic. He said that excessive oil consumption can point to head gasket. All I've read about concerning HG failure was because of poor cooling in the motor - overheating, etc. He seemed to concur and unfortunately, I can't recall what his rational was. He said they don't like Bars stop leak, and prefer Blue Devil. He also said that a puff of blue smoke was HG and not just "blow by." I always though white was more a sign of coolant/HG...
In the last year I've owned it, the truck has never been excessively slow, I've only seen two puffs of smoke early on after it sat running for approximately 5 minutes before I put it in drive, and I don't show any signs of coolant leaks. The overflow tank hasn't budged since I've owned it.
So to turn to mud, what do you guys think? Is this plausible? What should I do from here? I'm going to call the dealerships here in town... if I'm paying someone $97 for labor, I'll gladly pay $105 at a dealership to get all their wonderful perks.
Oh and if all that news isn't bad enough, the hood latch cable is stretched out and is giving me fits... I guess I'll be researching that one next...
Thanks guys... Here's a pic because we all know threads are worthless without them.